Two days after producing a "shocker of a pitch" for second T20I of the three-T20I series against New Zealand, the pitch curator of Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow has been sacked.
In a six-less encounter, which saw a low-scoring game going in India's way, skipper Hardik Pandya did not hold back from criticising the pitch that aided spinners. While India were able to restrict New Zealand for 99, chasing a total of 100 looked like a daunting task as the hosts won only with a ball to spare.
"The curator has been removed and replaced by Sanjeev Kumar Agarwal who is a very experienced curator. We will turn things around in a month.
"A lot of domestic cricket was already played on all the centre wickets ahead of the T20I and the curator should have left one or two strips for an international game. The surface was overused and due to the bad weather, there was not enough (time) to prepare a fresh wicket," a UPCA source told PTI.
The newly appointed pitch curator had prepared pitches in Bangladesh. He was removed from the post in October 2022. As per the source, he will work with veteran BCCI curator Taposh Chatterjee to make amends.
The Lucknow T20I was a paradise for spinners as it created the record for most balls bowled by spinners in a T20I match (including full-member nations). Even Suryakumar Yadav who bats with a strike rate over 180 found it difficult to score a boundary, let alone hit a six. The first boundary he scored was in the last over to seal the win. He remained unbeaten for 26 off 31 deliveries.
On the other hand, opener Ishan Kishan scored just 19 runs from 32 deliveries, making it the slowest innings by an Indian opener. Overall, the run rate of 5.02 runs per over in the T20I was the lowest in a men's T20I on Indian soil.
Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir was shocked by the nature of the pitch as he felt it was not suitable for T20 cricket. “If Quinton de Kock sees this pitch, (it is possible that) he might not come to play IPL,” Gambhir said while commentating on Star Sports.
